I was born on a large farming estate in Hampshire, England and followed my father, grandfather, and uncles, into the industry starting as a student and gradually worked my way up to management level running a dairy, arable and beef farm here on the Isle of Wight.

I met my wife Shirley in 1987 and we married in June 1988. Shirley and her late father had also worked in farming so we worked together on the farm and the children from our earlier marriages helped at busy times too.

All was well until the owner of the farm sold up in 1991 and the farm was swallowed up by an agribusiness that farmed in various places around the world.

In January 1992 I was poisoned by an illegal mixture of the organophosphorus chemicals that are added to grain and, because doctors had not been told of the potential symptoms I was treated with contraindicated drugs that made matters worse.

I am now classified as disabled and in need of care, and suffer with reactions to a very wide range of chemicals which I formerly had no reaction to at all.

Although officials of government deny the links to the chemicals, like others in farming areas, Shirley was diagnosed with a highly malignant breast cancer that had entered the lymph nodes. As a result she was given chemotherapy and radiation treatment and suffered similar symptoms to my own. She is now also susceptible to normally "safe" chemicals, although not as badly as I am.

We are lucky to have the support of our family and our doctors but we know that others are not so lucky and so we are determined to use our experiences as a warning to others and to help where we can.

When pressure has been brought to bear in efforts to silence us we think of our eight grandchildren and pregnant daughter and fight on for them and their future in this chemically contaminated world.

Read Richard's & Shirley's story here
Read Richard's battle with the crazy English Law here.